Car dealer Mike Brewer bought this Diahatsu Tanto while he was attempting to trade up in Japan (Picture: Discovery Networks)

As morning commutes go, swapping my packed train for a Porsche Boxster is entirely agreeable – even if I have to hold a pre-coffee conversation with my driver for more than an hour. That’s because my chauffeur is Discovery Channel legend Mike Brewer.

The Wheeler Dealers presenter is in a far too chipper mood for this time of the morning but when you’re celebrating ten years of fronting the channel’s most successful worldwide show, it’s understandable.

Brewer has offered to upgrade my journey into work to promote his new spin-off series Wheeler Dealers Trading Up (seamless), which begins next week. The premise is simple: instead of buying and selling cars in Britain with the expert help of right-hand mechanic Edd China, he’s playing the global car market and, starting with just £2,000, aims to trade his way up to a supercar.

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‘I was looking for a way to take Wheeler Dealers to the world and fulfil my lifetime’s dream of owning a supercar,’ he says. ‘I’ve traded up ever since my first car, which was a Mini. I sold it for a profit and bought a Morris Marina, then a Ford Escort 1.3 to an Escort 1.6, then I put the XR3 wheels on it and an XR3 boot spoiler. I wanted to see if I could do the same thing on a global scale, starting from very humble beginnings.’

Brewer’s adventures take him on an 85,000km journey around the world to destinations including Japan, Mexico, the US, United Arab Emirates and Sweden, where he picks up a rare right-hand drive Volvo P1800 – the car made famous by TV series The Saint.

‘I started in Calcutta and found a hideous little car called a Maruti Alto,’ he says. ‘This vehicle had basically nothing going for it except air conditioning and a bidet – or a rear wash/wiper.

‘The car was so awful I needed divine intervention, so I took it to a holy man to bless it. Then I played the rapidly growing middle-class market and advertised it in a respected newspaper. Low and behold, the phone literally rang off the hook. I sold it two days later to a retired couple buying their first-ever car.’

Using his legendary nous, Brewer forged his path back to Britain by buying something called a Hindustan Ambassador. Although widely used as a taxi in India, it’s essentially a 1950s Morris Oxford still revered over here. He adds: ‘I wanted to take a little slice of the Raj back to Britain. It’s the first car in 40 years to be exported from Calcutta – the paperwork didn’t even exist and the Indian authorities had to make it up as they went along through the courts. I got back and sold it to two wonderful ladies, one Indian and one English, who wanted the car as a wedding present.’

Brewer admits Wheeler Dealers has led to him being recognised wherever he travels. He says: ‘I get inundated by fans in North America but the show, peculiarly, is huge in countries such as Poland and Turkey. The Polish love cars and when I travel there I get treated like Brad Pitt.

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‘The Turkish version is dubbed but they’ve found someone who sounds like me and someone who sounds like Edd. These voice-over artists have carved a career of being the Turkish version of us for the past ten years and have become more like us as time goes on.’

You’ll have to tune in to find out if Brewer’s global supercar search is successful but away from the show he’s traded up himself by buying his dream American muscle car. ‘I’ve bought myself a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro SS,’ he says. ‘It’s a proper American muscle car with 10in rear tyres and a sound that’s going to shatter my neighbour’s windows. I will drive that car with pleasure.

‘Unlike Metro readers stuffed into a train, or city motorists miserable in their G-Wiz cars and Toyota Priuses, I’m going to be happily sitting beside them in my classic American car. Alright, it’s going to cost me more in fuel; alright, I’ll have to pay the congestion charge; alright, I’m not doing much for the environment. But I’m going to have a big smile on my face and, if it helps, I’ll go and plant a tree somewhere.’

Wheeler Dealers: Trading Up airs on Discovery UK on Tuesdays at 9pm from April 2